Christopher Steele, the author of the now-debunked anti-Trump dossier that spurred the Russia probe, will tell investigators that the FBI lied to a top-secret court and to Congress regarding the former British spy's infamous document, says a former U.S. attorney.
Joseph diGenova was commenting Tuesday night on the Fox News Channel's "Hannity" on the Times of London report that Steele has agreed to be questioned in the coming weeks by U.S. officials about his relationship with the FBI.
DiGenova, who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1988, said that "obviously been some sort of deal that’s been worked out," calling it "great news."
"I assume he's going to tell the truth now, because this is the big casino now," said diGenova of Steele.
"And what he's going to prove is the FBI lied in the FISA warrants, and they lied to Congress and they lied to everybody about what they knew about Steele's behavior."
DiGenova was referring to the FBI's use of the dossier as primary evidence to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump administration.
The then-Republican-led House Intelligence Committee produced evidence that the FBI and the Justice Department did not inform the FISA court that the dossier of salacious claims against Trump amounted to political opposition research commissioned and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Robert Mueller's special counsel report debunked major claims in the dossier and could not verify any of it. In fact, when put under oath in court, Steele testified that he could not verify its contents.
The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating whether Obama administration officials abused their power in the process of obtaining the surveillance warrants.
Steele initially declined to be questioned as part of the Justice Department's inquiry, the source told the Times. But he reconsidered learning the investigation ultimately could question his credibility.
Steele was a confidential source for the FBI while he compiled the dossier for the political research firm Fusion GPS.
The FBI terminated Steele for leaking to the media, he continued to feed the Obama administration information through Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.